Change is required if we’re to pave the path to prosperity.
The promise and prospect of such change was the dominant theme at America’s foremost conservative gathering, CPAC, in Washington DC last month.
There are clear lessons for Australia’s political class to learn, not only from the election of Donald Trump as President, but the actions he has taken since.
Speaker after speaker at the conference, whether it be Vice President Vance, House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, Elon Musk, or President Trump himself, spoke of the importance of the shift in action that the new administration was taking to reverse the American decline seen under President Biden.
From the winding back of regulations and the administrative state, attacking government bloat through the Department of Government Efficiency, restoring sensible energy policies based on reliable and secure baseload sources, removing woke from the classroom, and more, it was clear this administration was confronting its national challenges head-on.
Australians should take note, especially considering the problems the United States faced during the Biden presidency are eerily similar to the issues Australia has been burdened with under Anthony Albanese.
This is in no small part due to the prime minister’s adoption of the Biden agenda.
Just consider the Albanese government’s flagship election campaign policy, Future Made in Australia. This policy is little more than an Australianised version of the US Inflation Reduction Act and is an admission that renewable energy projects must be massively subsidised if they are to stack up against baseload energy sources. Today, the US policy is estimated to be running at over three times its original budget.
Another example was the commitment by both Biden and Albanese to police social media for ‘misinformation’. Thankfully, the attempt to censor mainstream Australians has stalled for now, as the federal government failed to get its bill passed by the Senate late last year. But watch this space; it could well emerge as a bargaining chip in negotiations to form a minority government.
The overwhelming rejection of Biden’s agenda in November last year, and declining support for the Albanese government in the polls here, are a clear reflection the status quo policy approach is not working.
While record levels of inflation-inducing government spending, along with an unsustainable and unplanned migration intake, have kept headline economic numbers positive, Australians have experienced the longest personal recession on record. For eight of the ten full quarters the Albanese government has been in office, per capita GDP has declined, including a span of seven consecutive quarters.
President Trump and the Republican Party were able to mobilise dissatisfied voters by offering an alternative vision, one that promised to reverse the decline caused by previous failed administrations.
This is why the mood at CPAC was not just triumphant, but full of hope. Attendees believe the second Trump administration will be a force for positive change, rather than just the best of two bad options.
What remains unclear is whether such a force exists in Australia to remake politics and provide the solutions to its myriad challenges. There are promising signs. Specifically, these include the appointment of Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as Shadow Minister for Government Efficiency, the Coalition’s commitment to nuclear energy, and the acknowledgement that out-of-control migration is a serious policy and social issue that needs to be addressed.
And yet, the announcement last week that the opposition would match, and even exceed, a government commitment to spend an additional $9 billion on Medicare indicates a failure to recognise the scale of Australia’s fiscal challenge.
The ball is in the Coalition’s court to promote ideas and policies that address and remedy the economic and social pressures we are experiencing ahead of the upcoming election, just as the GOP did in the United States under Donald Trump.
Saxon Davidson is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs
